Battlezone 98 Redux Blasting Off This Spring

When Sniper Elite devs Rebellion announced last year that they were bringing back Battlezone, everyone responded “Oh. But not the good Battlezone?” (by which I mean I said that, but I’m using my authority to make you complicit, sucker). Luckily, Rebellion soon added that as well as making a game based on Atari’s 1980 arcade shooter, they were revamping The Good Battlezone, the FPS/RTS Activision released in 1998.

Now we know that Battlezone 98 Redux [official site], as they’re calling it, will arrive in spring with Steam Workshop support for mods and other new bits.

The Good Battlezone is an alternate history RTS (yes, these were big in the late ’90s) where the USA and USSR brawl across the solar system, from the Moon to Mars and beyond. What makes it special and exciting is the ability to hop into any unit on the battlefield, controlling it yourself to lead the charge or pull off daring maneuvers and turn the tide of battle. It was fun then, and I’m hopeful it’ll still be fun now.

As well as sprucing up the graphics a little (Rebellion talk of “completely remodelled vehicles and buildings, enhanced lighting and shadows, improved particle effects, upgraded animations, upscaled terrain, and more”), the Redux will boast Steam Workshop support to easily download new player-made maps and mods and all that.

I remember when you had to buy cheery RPS fanzine PC Gamer to get mods and maps, you know, and they came on fragile 12cm-diameter USB circlesticks we had to plug into a special huge USB slot. Kids these days don’t know how good they’ve got it.